Have a second desktop PC which isn't much used - but is handy when needed.
Is similar to my main one, having dual boot with two HDs - one XP, one
Win7. Used it a few weeks ago and discovered the XP HD had failed. And
just now the Win 7 one. Both were bought at the same time and are
identical. Can't remember where they were bought and when.

What is the best make to go for these days? A quick glance on Ebay showed
a 500Gb or so to cost an arm and a leg.

--
*Why don't sheep shrink when it rains?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 01/10/13 15:00, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Have a second desktop PC which isn't much used - but is handy when needed.
Is similar to my main one, having dual boot with two HDs - one XP, one
Win7. Used it a few weeks ago and discovered the XP HD had failed. And
just now the Win 7 one. Both were bought at the same time and are
identical. Can't remember where they were bought and when.

What is the best make to go for these days? A quick glance on Ebay showed
a 500Gb or so to cost an arm and a leg.

what?
46 quid is an arm and a leg?

http://www.woc.co.uk/pricelist.aspx?category=Driveg

IIRC only 3 companies left making hard disks.


--
Ineptocracy

(in-ep-toc-ra-cy) €“ a system of government where the least capable to
lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the
members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are
rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a
diminishing number of producers.

On Tue, 01 Oct 2013 16:38:59 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

What is the best make to go for these days? A quick glance on Ebay
showed a 500Gb or so to cost an arm and a leg.

what?
46 quid is an arm and a leg?

For a half gig drive? That's 1TB drive money on Amazon.
£35 for 500Gb, £70 for 2TB.

That's assuming SATA, however.
IDE are very old tech now, smaller, and more expensive.

On 01/10/13 16:49, Adrian wrote:
On Tue, 01 Oct 2013 16:38:59 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

What is the best make to go for these days? A quick glance on Ebay
showed a 500Gb or so to cost an arm and a leg.

what?
46 quid is an arm and a leg?

For a half gig drive? That's 1TB drive money on Amazon.
£35 for 500Gb, £70 for 2TB.

That's assuming SATA, however.
IDE are very old tech now, smaller, and more expensive.

yerrs. I looked at 'upgrading' an old IDE lappie, and concluded i'd be
better off with a SATA FLASH drive and an IDE adapter..


--
Ineptocracy

(in-ep-toc-ra-cy) €“ a system of government where the least capable to
lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the
members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are
rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a
diminishing number of producers.

I thought I saw a dongle to convert them to ide recently, but I guess ide
will gradually get rarer as time passes so maybt such adaptors will
eventually vanish.
Brian

--
From the Sofa of Brian Gaff Reply address is active
"Adrian" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 01 Oct 2013 16:38:59 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

What is the best make to go for these days? A quick glance on Ebay
showed a 500Gb or so to cost an arm and a leg.

what?
46 quid is an arm and a leg?

For a half gig drive? That's 1TB drive money on Amazon.
£35 for 500Gb, £70 for 2TB.

That's assuming SATA, however.
IDE are very old tech now, smaller, and more expensive.

On Tue, 01 Oct 2013 16:38:59 +0100, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:

On 01/10/13 15:00, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Have a second desktop PC which isn't much used - but is handy when needed.
Is similar to my main one, having dual boot with two HDs - one XP, one
Win7. Used it a few weeks ago and discovered the XP HD had failed. And
just now the Win 7 one. Both were bought at the same time and are
identical. Can't remember where they were bought and when.

What is the best make to go for these days? A quick glance on Ebay showed
a 500Gb or so to cost an arm and a leg.

what?
46 quid is an arm and a leg?

He might have looked at the solid state things. At a glance it looks
like a straight HD in a picture.

He has cheap body parts then.
Brian

--
From the Sofa of Brian Gaff Reply address is active
"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...
On 01/10/13 15:00, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Have a second desktop PC which isn't much used - but is handy when
needed.
Is similar to my main one, having dual boot with two HDs - one XP, one
Win7. Used it a few weeks ago and discovered the XP HD had failed. And
just now the Win 7 one. Both were bought at the same time and are
identical. Can't remember where they were bought and when.

What is the best make to go for these days? A quick glance on Ebay showed
a 500Gb or so to cost an arm and a leg.

what?
46 quid is an arm and a leg?

http://www.woc.co.uk/pricelist.aspx?category=Driveg

IIRC only 3 companies left making hard disks.


--
Ineptocracy

(in-ep-toc'-ra-cy) - a system of government where the least capable to
lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members
of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are rewarded
with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a
diminishing number of producers.

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
Have a second desktop PC which isn't much used - but is handy when needed.
Is similar to my main one, having dual boot with two HDs - one XP, one
Win7. Used it a few weeks ago and discovered the XP HD had failed. And
just now the Win 7 one. Both were bought at the same time and are
identical. Can't remember where they were bought and when.

What is the best make to go for these days?

well you only have Seagate, Toshiba and Western Digital to choose from these
days ;(


-

On 01/10/2013 15:00, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Have a second desktop PC which isn't much used - but is handy when needed.
Is similar to my main one, having dual boot with two HDs - one XP, one
Win7. Used it a few weeks ago and discovered the XP HD had failed. And
just now the Win 7 one. Both were bought at the same time and are
identical. Can't remember where they were bought and when.

What is the best make to go for these days? A quick glance on Ebay showed
a 500Gb or so to cost an arm and a leg.


http://www.ebuyer.com/544877-seagate...hd-st1000dx001

On 01/10/2013 15:00, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Have a second desktop PC which isn't much used - but is handy when needed.
Is similar to my main one, having dual boot with two HDs - one XP, one
Win7. Used it a few weeks ago and discovered the XP HD had failed. And
just now the Win 7 one.


Have you checked the power supply?

On 01/10/2013 19:07, dennis@home wrote:
On 01/10/2013 15:00, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Have a second desktop PC which isn't much used - but is handy when
needed.
Is similar to my main one, having dual boot with two HDs - one XP, one
Win7. Used it a few weeks ago and discovered the XP HD had failed. And
just now the Win 7 one.


Have you checked the power supply?


Quite. Bit too much of a coincidence.

If the machine checks out OK, I'd second the recommendations elsewhere
for an SSD if space isn't too much of an issue.

--
Cheers, Rob

In article m,
dennis@home wrote:
On 01/10/2013 15:00, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Have a second desktop PC which isn't much used - but is handy when
needed. Is similar to my main one, having dual boot with two HDs - one
XP, one Win7. Used it a few weeks ago and discovered the XP HD had
failed. And just now the Win 7 one.


Have you checked the power supply?

The DVD players seem still to work ok. I assume you're meaning a fault on
the 12v rail?

--
*When I'm not in my right mind, my left mind gets pretty crowded *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Tuesday, October 1, 2013 3:00:04 PM UTC+1, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

Have a second desktop PC which isn't much used - but is handy when needed.
Is similar to my main one, having dual boot with two HDs - one XP, one
Win7. Used it a few weeks ago and discovered the XP HD had failed. And
just now the Win 7 one. Both were bought at the same time and are
identical. Can't remember where they were bought and when.
What is the best make to go for these days? A quick glance on Ebay showed
a 500Gb or so to cost an arm and a leg.

All the main brands are mostly good, with the occasional screwup. I avoid freecom et al, the MTBFs I've seen didnt inspire much confidence


NT

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote:
What is the best make to go for these days? A quick glance on Ebay showed
a 500Gb or so to cost an arm and a leg.

Do you really need 500GB? SSD is smaller and more expensive, but might give
the machine a decent performance boost.

Theo

On 01/10/2013 20:01, Theo Markettos wrote:
"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote:
What is the best make to go for these days? A quick glance on Ebay showed
a 500Gb or so to cost an arm and a leg.

Do you really need 500GB? SSD is smaller and more expensive, but might give
the machine a decent performance boost.

Theo

I would have expected almost any machine originally supplied with XP
would by now get a speed boost from a new hard drive. That being purely
due to better performance of the drives - disregarding things like
defragmentation and general clear-up.

--
Rod

On Tue, 01 Oct 2013 20:22:32 +0100, polygonum wrote:

I would have expected almost any machine originally supplied with XP
would by now get a speed boost from a new hard drive. That being purely
due to better performance of the drives - disregarding things like
defragmentation and general clear-up.

Modern consumer drives focus on reduced power consumption, rather than
speed. There _are_ performance-focussed drives, but they're spendier.

On 01/10/2013 21:36, Adrian wrote:
On Tue, 01 Oct 2013 20:22:32 +0100, polygonum wrote:

I would have expected almost any machine originally supplied with XP
would by now get a speed boost from a new hard drive. That being purely
due to better performance of the drives - disregarding things like
defragmentation and general clear-up.

Modern consumer drives focus on reduced power consumption, rather than
speed. There _are_ performance-focussed drives, but they're spendier.

They still have somewhere around half the access time, larger cache,
fancier built-in intelligence and much faster bus speeds from those of,
say, six or seven years ago.

--
Rod

On Tue, 01 Oct 2013 22:00:01 +0100, polygonum wrote:

Modern consumer drives focus on reduced power consumption, rather than
speed. There _are_ performance-focussed drives, but they're spendier.

They still have somewhere around half the access time, larger cache,
fancier built-in intelligence and much faster bus speeds from those of,
say, six or seven years ago.

Faster bus speeds are bollock all use without the controller to match.

On 01/10/13 20:01, Theo Markettos wrote:
"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote:
What is the best make to go for these days? A quick glance on Ebay showed
a 500Gb or so to cost an arm and a leg.

Do you really need 500GB? SSD is smaller and more expensive, but might give
the machine a decent performance boost.

Theo

got over 2TB altogether here.

Of course giving SWMBO a device to record TV onto the server..and a way
for the sitting room TV to replay from the server...didnt help.

But it is a hell of a lot better than a vast bookcase full of DVDS and
tapes half of which dont play the next time you try and use them

Then there are the photos we take...

--
Ineptocracy

(in-ep-toc-ra-cy) €“ a system of government where the least capable to
lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the
members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are
rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a
diminishing number of producers.

In article ,
Theo Markettos wrote:
"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote:
What is the best make to go for these days? A quick glance on Ebay
showed a 500Gb or so to cost an arm and a leg.

Do you really need 500GB? SSD is smaller and more expensive, but might
give the machine a decent performance boost.

It actually performs ok for my needs. I do wonder about the life of SSD,
though.

--
*Preserve wildlife - Go pickle a squirrel*

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 02/10/13 00:06, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Theo Markettos wrote:
"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote:
What is the best make to go for these days? A quick glance on Ebay
showed a 500Gb or so to cost an arm and a leg.

Do you really need 500GB? SSD is smaller and more expensive, but might
give the machine a decent performance boost.

It actually performs ok for my needs. I do wonder about the life of SSD,
though.

I thnk I saw an article in the Register saying that SSD was now actually
better than disks on a reasonable duty cycle.


--
Ineptocracy

(in-ep-toc-ra-cy) €“ a system of government where the least capable to
lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the
members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are
rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a
diminishing number of producers.

In article ,
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 02/10/13 00:06, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Theo Markettos wrote:
"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote:
What is the best make to go for these days? A quick glance on Ebay
showed a 500Gb or so to cost an arm and a leg.

Do you really need 500GB? SSD is smaller and more expensive, but
might give the machine a decent performance boost.

It actually performs ok for my needs. I do wonder about the life of
SSD, though.

I thnk I saw an article in the Register saying that SSD was now actually
better than disks on a reasonable duty cycle.

In this particular case the machine only gets occasional use, so it might
be more about shelf life. I've got little used memory cards or sticks that
no longer work.

--
*You! Off my planet!

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Wed, 02 Oct 2013 08:56:47 +0100, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:

On 02/10/13 00:06, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Theo Markettos wrote:
"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote:
What is the best make to go for these days? A quick glance on Ebay
showed a 500Gb or so to cost an arm and a leg.

Do you really need 500GB? SSD is smaller and more expensive, but might
give the machine a decent performance boost.

It actually performs ok for my needs. I do wonder about the life of SSD,
though.

I thnk I saw an article in the Register saying that SSD was now actually
better than disks on a reasonable duty cycle.

SSD's also have far longer manufacturers guarantees (some of mine are 3 year,
others 5 year) than any new spinning rust discs do.

Post the 2011 Thailand floods they moved to 1 or 2 years max. With so few
players in the market, and prices per TB still higher than they were two years
ago it's showing some indications of a cartel.

Mind you SSD's are very volatile in pricing. I've seen around 45% variation in
just the last month, up and down and up again like a whores knickers.




--

In article , The Other Mike
writes

Post the 2011 Thailand floods they moved to 1 or 2 years max. With so few
players in the market, and prices per TB still higher than they were two years
ago it's showing some indications of a cartel.

WD Blacks are still 5yrs so that is what I am using at the mo.

50quid for 500GB so still pretty cheap:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004LR1RPK
--
fred
it's a ba-na-na . . . .

I put a half a tb one in a laptop for just over 50 quid less than a year
back, surely not that expensive.

Brian

--
From the Sofa of Brian Gaff Reply address is active
"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
Have a second desktop PC which isn't much used - but is handy when needed.
Is similar to my main one, having dual boot with two HDs - one XP, one
Win7. Used it a few weeks ago and discovered the XP HD had failed. And
just now the Win 7 one. Both were bought at the same time and are
identical. Can't remember where they were bought and when.

What is the best make to go for these days? A quick glance on Ebay showed
a 500Gb or so to cost an arm and a leg.

--
*Why don't sheep shrink when it rains?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Have a second desktop PC which isn't much used - but is handy when needed.
Is similar to my main one, having dual boot with two HDs - one XP, one
Win7. Used it a few weeks ago and discovered the XP HD had failed. And
just now the Win 7 one. Both were bought at the same time and are
identical. Can't remember where they were bought and when.

What is the best make to go for these days? A quick glance on Ebay showed
a 500Gb or so to cost an arm and a leg.


If its a Seagate they replace FOC if its still under their warranty (often 5
years). Download their free test software, it will test the drive, possibly
fix it, and tell you if its under warranty. It will test and fix other makes
as well.

http://www.seagate.com/support/downl...ls-win-master/

Mike